What's a good netbook? Yes, netbook!

[UstadKhanAli]

Some had declared the death of the netbook a year or two ago, but they are still around.

And why am I interested in a netbook?

1.  I am looking for a fairly inexpensive back-up for my photographs when I am traveling, and photo back-up devices are absurdly expensive.  Later this year, I will be traveling to the remote Himalayas in India, and will often not have access to computers or other stuff, so something like this would be really great.

2.  I can have 320G HD, much of which I can use for storage. A tablet typically does not have enough storage for my needs.

3.  I can check email and look up stuff, unlike a photo back-up device, when closer to civilization.  While India has a lot of internet cafes, wifi, etc., most of the regions I'll be in are rather remote, and chances are I will not have much access to this.

4.  I can watch movies on the plane

5.  I can use photo software and categorize and label stuff

What I'd like to find is something that is small, definitely no larger than 10", and even smaller would be be great, and something that is lightweight and has long battery life.  If you happen to know of such a thing, please lay it on me.  Or if you can think of an alternative that doesn't cost over US$300-350, let me know.  

This is what I've found so far:

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AOD270-1375-Netbook-Processor-Espresso/dp/B007582KGM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1PTRFA0MCLKW0&coliid=IT56Z40ORSQB0

[MikeRivers]

Here's a better deal on essentially the same one. It's refurbished, but I've bought several refurbs from Micro Center with complete success. I bought a previous model of this same machine for a friend who was in a rhab facility for months waiting for an infection to clear so he could get his hip replacement replaced. He loved it, and now that he's out and on his feet, he takes it with him when he travels. I have a similar one from Toshiba but it cost $100 more.

10" is useful, anything smaller will get annoying. A nice feature of this one for your work is a built-in media card reader (SD family, maybe others) so you don't need a cable or another part to get pictures from your camera into the computer. The WiFi works fine, and I've used it for at least 6 hours for light duty stuff (word processing, web surfing) on a battery charge. I've used it with a USB audio interface for  recording to the internal disk drive, and run Reaper and Sound Forge on it. Headphone output volume is adequate for editing using my Sony 7506 headphones.

Mine came with WinXP which is what I wanted. Both the Amazon and Micro Center ones now come with Win7 Starter. I can't remember why, but I decided that Win7 Starter had some limitation that I didn't want to live with. You might study that out and see what it doesn't get you, or you could upgrade. Maybe blue2blue can tell me why I didn't like Starter.

You're on the right track. I've never loved my tablet and sometimes I hate it. If you're used to living close to a computer, you want a computer.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

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MikeRivers wrote:

 

Here's a better deal

on essentially the same one. It's refurbished, but I've bought several refurbs from Micro Center with complete success. I bought a previous model of this same machine for a friend who was in a rhab facility for months waiting for an infection to clear so he could get his hip replacement replaced. He loved it, and now that he's out and on his feet, he takes it with him when he travels. I have a similar one from Toshiba but it cost $100 more.

 

10" is useful, anything smaller will get annoying. A nice feature of this one for your work is a built-in media card reader (SD family, maybe others) so you don't need a cable or another part to get pictures from your camera into the computer. The WiFi works fine, and I've used it for at least 6 hours for light duty stuff (word processing, web surfing) on a battery charge. I've used it with a USB audio interface for  recording to the internal disk drive, and run Reaper and Sound Forge on it. Headphone output volume is adequate for editing using my Sony 7506 headphones.

 

Mine came with WinXP which is what I wanted. Both the Amazon and Micro Center ones now come with Win7 Starter. I can't remember why, but I decided that Win7 Starter had some limitation that I didn't want to live with. You might study that out and see what it doesn't get you, or you could upgrade. Maybe blue2blue can tell me why I didn't like Starter.

 

You're on the right track. I've never loved my tablet and sometimes I hate it. If you're used to living close to a computer, you want a computer.

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Thanks for the info and link, Mike.  They both seem to have the same processor as well, so they should be comparable all the way around.

And although I am not getting this for remote recording, it's good to know that it's fast enough to do that.

I don't have a tablet - I don't think a "regular" black and white Kindle counts as a tablet - and it's partially because of what I wrote above.  I need far more storage and to be able to run View NX 2 and have the thing easily read SD cards (the provided slot is such a bonus...super great...I don't need to bring a card reader.  Also, with this, I can either bring an extra HD or some USB sticks and be done with it.  Easy.

 

I'm definitely not anti-tablet. They simply don't do what I need 'em to do.

 

 

If anyone else has any suggestions for netbooks, please lay it on me!  Thanks!